About RepRap

RepRap was the first of the low-cost 3D printers, and the RepRap Project started the open-source 3D printer revolution.

More significantly - and uniquely - RepRap is able to print out many of its own parts. The remaining parts are designed to be common items available from hardware stores or on-line.

RepRap stands for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. This means that anyone with a RepRap can make another RepRap for a friend, or can make RepRaps and sell them. Anyone using RepRaps for production of more RepRaps, or any other item, can double their capacity in a few days simply by taking their RepRaps out of service and having them copy themselves. Because RepRap is free and open-source, any person or company anywhere in the world can do these things without any royalty payments or other licensing issues. The only obligation on users is openly to release any improvements they make to the design of the RepRap machine itself back to the community.

RepRap is about making self-replicating machines, and making them freely available for the benefit of everyone. Right now, most RepRaps use 3D printing to do this, but other technologies that can copy themselves and that can be made freely available to all also qualify as RepRaps.

RepRap Wiki Mission Statement

The mission of the RepRap Wiki is to facilitate the free and open sharing of information between members of the RepRap community, for the purpose of improving RepRap technology and making this technology freely available for the benefit of everyone.

Policies

The RepRap Wiki is a self-governing project run by the RepRap community. Its policies are intended to reflect the consensus of the community. The "RepRap community" consists of

makers, users, buyers, and sellers of RepRaps and RepRap components,

makers, users, buyers and sellers of technologies that are closely and specifically related to the RepRap project (examples include but are not limited to: filament extruders, 3D scanners, open source 3D modeling software),

people with an interest (casual or otherwise) in RepRaps and/or the RepRap project.

Policies are developed by the community to describe best practices, clarify principles, resolve conflicts, and otherwise further the mission of the RepRap Wiki.

Use common sense when interpreting and applying policies; there will be occasional exceptions to these rules. Conversely, those who violate the spirit of a rule may be reprimanded even if no rule has technically been broken.

Overview and Guiding Principles

Use common sense

Don't be a jerk

Content

This section attempts to provide a broad picture of what kind of wiki content is acceptable and what is unacceptable by citing a number of examples. There is a lot of content on the wiki beyond the scope of examples listed here.

If a page does not fall under one of the "good" categories it is not necessarily bad.

If a page does not fall under one of the "bad" categories it is not necessarily good.

Build Manuals are Good

Tutorials are Good

Open Source is Good

It is strongly encouraged that projects on the RepRap Wiki include complete documentation and design files and source code (if applicable) released under an Open Source license.

If a wiki page describes a product that is offered for sale, it is required for source files to be available for that product if it is to be hosted on the RepRap wiki. Products that do not comply with this rule will first be tagged with a warning and then eventually removed from the wiki.

Members of the RepRap community do not unanimously agree on the definition of Open Source Hardware. For this reason, a compromise "lowest common denominator" definition was put in place that defines open source as simply "comes with files sufficient to make a copy".

There are exceptions to open source requirements. For example, a developer may perform an interesting experiment and document the results in a brief manner on the wiki without providing total documentation and source files for what they did. In this case, it is acceptable that the project not contain complete source materials because it was just an interesting experiment that others may find useful.

Advertising in the Wrong Place is Bad

Creating a page for the express purpose of advertising a product or company is prohibited.

Products that are offered for sale must meet the RepRap lowest common denominator definition of open source if they are to be hosted on the wiki. This rule excludes one-line links for small components like nuts and bolts, resistors, etc, which can be added to pages if there is a dedicated section for such items.

Pointless Links are Bad

It is prohibited to use the wiki solely in an attempt to drive traffic to your own personal website, blog, company, etc. It is often acceptable to include links to your own sites if they are relevant to the topic of the page.

Inappropriate Content is Bad

This should be obvious, but content that does not meet common sense standards of decency is not permitted on the wiki.

Among many other things, the RepRap Wiki is intended as an educational resource. Given that, content should be written using language that is suitable for use by school teachers, school pupils, and parents who wish to draw their children's attention to RepRap technology.

Irrelevant Content is Bad

This should also be obvious, but material on the RepRap wiki should be relevant to the RepRap Wiki Mission.

Weapon-related Content is Bad

The RepRap Wiki has a longstanding consensus of discouraging content on weapons technology (see some example discussions here and here). There are many internet venues dedicated to weapons technology that are much better suited for weapon-related content than RepRap Wiki. Please share your weapons work there instead of here.

Clean start

Any user who is not subject to editing sanctions may abandon his or her account and start fresh under a new one, as long as the new account is not used in an improper manner.

Consensus

Consensus among equals is our only tool for resolving content disputes, and our main tool for resolving all other disputes.

Dispute resolution

The first step to resolving any dispute is to talk to those who disagree with you. If that fails, there are more structured forms of discussion available, such as appealing to the Administration, Announcements, Policy forum.

Edit warring

If someone challenges your edits, discuss it with them and seek a compromise, or seek dispute resolution. Do not start fights over competing views and versions. Reverting any part of any single page more than three times in twenty-four hours, or even once if long-term edit-warring is apparent, can result in a block on your account.

Editing policy

Improve pages wherever you can, and don't worry about leaving them imperfect. It is advisable to explain major changes.

Harassment

Do not stop other editors from enjoying RepRap Wiki by making threats, nitpicking good-faith edits to different articles, repeated annoying and unwanted contacts, repeated personal attacks or posting personal information.

Non-discrimination

Do not discriminate against current or prospective users on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristics.

No personal attacks

Do not make personal attacks anywhere in RepRap Wiki. Comment on the content, not on the contributor. Personal attacks damage the community and deter editors.

Ownership of content

Although you may retain some rights under international copyright provisions, pages that you create and edit belong to the community. Others can and often do mercilessly edit "your" material.

Sock puppetry

Do not use multiple accounts to create the illusion of greater support for an issue, to mislead others, or to circumvent a block. Do not ask your friends to create accounts to support you or anyone.

Username policy

Choose a neutral username with which you will be happy. You can sometimes change your name if you need to by asking, but you cannot delete it.

Vandalism

Vandalism is any addition, deletion, or change to content made in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of the wiki. It is inappropriate behavior for the RepRap Wiki.

Deletion

Deletion policy

Deleting articles requires an administrator and generally follows a consensus-forming process. Most potentially controversial deletions require a three-step process and a waiting period of three weeks:

An editor places a clearly visible warning at the top of a page that recommends it for deletion. This warning shall include a link to a place of discussion, which can be either the related wiki discussion page or a RepRap forum discussion.

There is a three week waiting period during which people can discuss the recommendation and possibly address the problems with the page so that it can avoid deletion.

At the end of the waiting period, an administrator makes a decision and either

deletes the page,

extends the waiting period, or

restores the page to its previous condition.

Pages can be recommended for deletion more than once. It's allowed to edit the wiki page during the discussion period to enhance it or resolve topics brought up in the discussion.

Editors that abuse the deletion process may be blocked from editing for a short or long time.

Enforcement

Enforcement on RepRap Wiki is similar to other social interactions. If an editor violates the community standards described in policies, other editors can persuade the person to adhere to acceptable norms of conduct, over time resorting to more forceful means, such as administrator actions. In the case of gross violations of community norms, they are likely to resort to more forceful means fairly rapidly. Going against the principles set out on these pages is unlikely to prove acceptable, although it may be possible to convince fellow editors that an exception ought to be made. This means that individual editors (including you) enforce and apply policies.

In cases where it is clear that a user is acting against policy, especially if they are doing so intentionally and persistently, that user may be temporarily or indefinitely blocked from editing by an administrator. In cases where the general dispute resolution procedure has been ineffective, an appeal may be made to Adrian Bowyer to deal with highly disruptive or sensitive situations.

Administrators

Administrators, like all editors, are not perfect beings. However, in general, they are expected to act as role models within the community, and a good general standard of civility, fairness, and general conduct both to editors and in content matters, is expected. When acting as administrators, they are also expected to be fair, exercise good judgment, and give explanations and be communicative as necessary.

Blocking policy

Disruptive editors can be blocked from editing for short or long periods of time.

Page protection policy

Pages can be protected against vandals or during fierce content disputes. Protected pages can, but in general should not, be edited by administrators. In addition, pages undergoing frequent vandalism can be semi-protected to block edits by very new or unregistered editors.